The Bulletproof Musician

A friend recently asked if it's true that becoming a virtuoso performer requires being a perfectionist.Well, spoiler alert, it's not a simple yes or no answer. And there are a lot of fascinating nuances to explore. One of which involves performance anxiety, and the question of whether perfectionism increases or decreases nerves.Get all the nerdy details and find out how much perfectionism might work best:How Much Perfectionism Do You Really Need to Succeed?ReferencesRacine, P., Laflamme, S. V., Gaudreau, P., & Langlois, F. (2025). Please don’t stop the music! A new look at the performance anxiety of musicians with the model of excellencism and perfectionism. Psychology of Music. https://doi.org/10.1177/03057356241300538☃️ Holiday 2-for-1 OfferGet the Beyond Practicing course, with bonus account and two additional bonuses for you and a buddy (ends December 7, 2025):👉 Get the 2-for-1 offer + bonusesMore from The Bulletproof Musician Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content. Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage. Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice. Live and self-paced courses

Playing for other people, whether it’s an audience of one, a dozen, or several hundred, can be a stressful thing! So it’s easy to focus on the negative aspects of performance, like how to manage nerves and avoid mistakes.But performing can also be a real thrill, and one of the most satisfying and meaningful things we do in music. So I thought it might be fun to explore performing and practicing from this more positive angle as well.My guest today is pianist Pallavi Mahidhara. A prizewinner at the Geneva International Piano Competition and the International Prokofiev Competition in Saint Petersburg Russia, Pallavi has performed across five continents, and at festivals such as Marlboro and Verbier. She also hosts the “Conscious Artist” podcast, which promotes mental health awareness for performing artists, and is often invited to give workshops and master classes at universities and summer programs as well.In this episode, you’ll hear Pallavi describe how practicing and performing are separate, how practicing and performing are connected, how she is able to look for the good rather than the bad in each piano she plays, how she is able to be present and trust herself in performance, and why it’s helpful - both in music and in life - to have no regrets.Get all the nerdy details right here:Pallavi Mahidhara: On Practicing for Flexibility, Not PerfectionMore from The Bulletproof Musician Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content. Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage. Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice. Live and self-paced courses

Sleep and recovery is an aspect of preparation that athletes prioritize, with teams hiring sleep consultants, and many athletes going to great lengths to ensure they’re getting enough sleep.And studies suggest that this investment of time is very much worth their while, when it comes to high-level performance.But how much of a difference would an additional 90 minutes of sleep make when it comes to music performance?Get all the nerdy details and see what happened when a group of music students and professional musicians added an extra 90 minutes to their sleep for a week:What Happened When Musicians Slept 90 Minutes MoreReferencesPelletier, B. (2025). Effects of sleep extension on musical performance skills. Music & Science, 8. https://doi.org/10.1177/20592043251385420More from The Bulletproof Musician Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content. Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage. Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice. Live and self-paced courses

I remember a lesson many years ago, when my teacher told me that her job was to teach me how to teach myself. So that I would one day no longer need a teacher.I couldn’t have been more than 9 or 10 at the time, so the notion of me teaching myself was hard to fathom. It was difficult enough to just play in tune, never mind come up with my own bowings and fingerings, or making decisions about phrasing and all the musical details and nuances involved.Of course, she was right. One day I wouldn’t have a teacher. Or even if I did, I would only have that teacher’s assistance for one brief hour out of each week. Which meant that for 99.4% of the week, I was on my own. And if I wanted to make meaningful progress during the week, I’d have to learn how to teach myself.But how exactly do you teach someone to become a more independent learner?Get all the nerdy details right here:Why Being Too Quick to Offer Feedback Could Inhibit LearningReferencesSwinnen, S. P., Schmidt, R. A., Nicholson, D. E., & Shapiro, D. C. (1990). Information feedback for skill acquisition: Instantaneous knowledge of results degrades learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition, 16(4), 706–716. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.16.4.706More from The Bulletproof Musician Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content. Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage. Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice. Live and self-paced courses

Whether we’re baking a cake, driving to a new restaurant, or putting together a puzzle, we can usually get to the goal more efficiently and effectively if we have a clear idea what the destination looks like.I think we all know that the same is true for learning a new piece of music too - but often, this is not actually what our practice looks like. While we might have a pretty good idea what we don’t want something to sound like, our approach to practicing suggests that we are typically much less clear about what exactly we do want.A 2023 study illustrates how taking a moment to be clearer about our musical intentions (with a 4-step process) could lead to more effective practice!Get all the nerdy details here:Fewer Repetitions….But More Rapid Progress?ReferencesWilliams, S. G., van Ketel, J. E., & Schaefer, R. S. (2023). Practicing Musical Intention: The Effects of External Focus of Attention on Musicians’ Skill Acquisition. Music & Science, 6. https://doi.org/10.1177/20592043231151416More from The Bulletproof Musician Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content. Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage. Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice. Live and self-paced courses

This episode with violinist Ida Kavafian is packed with key points about effective practice, plus fascinating nerdy details about bowing and fingering principles, references to specific passages in the Sibelius concerto, Schubert Fantasy, Beethoven’s Kreutzer sonata, a clever hack for playing fifths in tune, and so much more.And if you’re not a string player, don’t worry - many of the principles are equally applicable to other instruments too.Get all the nerdy details and learn how to level up your practice in this month’s interview:Ida Kavafian: Habits That Separate Good Musicians from Great OnesMore from The Bulletproof Musician Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content. Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage. Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice. Live and self-paced courses

One of the arguments often made for why we should memorize music, is that performing from memory facilitates more expressive performances. But is that really true?There's not a lot of direct data that speaks to this question, but there are some clues here and there, suggesting that the answer might be a little more nuanced than a simple yes or no. Get all the nerdy details right here:Can Memorizing Music Make You a More Expressive Performer?A course on how to develop “bulletproof” memory (registration ends 10/26/25)Most of us never learn how, but memorizing music is actually a concrete skill that can be learned. Discover a step-by-step, 3-phase, research-based framework for memorizing music that draws from the strategies that expert musicians and effective memorizers use to memorize music efficiently, and perform more confidently from memory - even under pressure.Get the Bulletproof Memory course (Public release ends October 26, 2025)ReferencesChaffin, R., Gerling, C. C., & Demos, A. P. (2024). How secure memorization promotes expression: A longitudinal case study of performing Chopin’s Barcarolle, Op. 60. Musicae Scientiae, 28(4), 703-722. https://doi.org/10.1177/10298649241241405Williamon, A. (1999). The Value of Performing from Memory. Psychology of Music, 27(1), 84-95. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735699271008Woody, R. H. (2006). The effect of various instructional conditions on expressive music performance. Journal of Research in Music Education, 54(1), 21–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/002242940605400103More from The Bulletproof Musician Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content. Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage. Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice. Live and self-paced courses

Memory is a complex beast for musicians, with two main types playing a crucial role. One method can leave you stranded under pressure, making it unreliable during performances. Discover why some musicians memorize effortlessly while others struggle with slips. Learn about serial cueing and how nerves can disrupt it, alongside techniques like content-addressable access that create reliable performance cues. Finally, uncover how expert musicians map their pieces with purposeful practice, transforming memorization into a skill rather than a mystery.

Many musicians dread memory slips on stage, especially pianists. Research reveals that piano memorization can be trickier due to differences in instruments and environments. Context-dependent memory plays a huge role, as performance can suffer when switching pianos. A fascinating study showed that students experienced significant memory drops with different pianos. To enhance memory recall, practicing in varied contexts is crucial. Starting memory work early in learning also helps musicians perform confidently.

Talk to anyone who has ever performed from memory, and you’ll probably get a story of a time when their memory failed them. For instance, I remember a time, perhaps in elementary school, when I got lost in a piece on stage, and rather than stopping and looking over the pianist’s shoulder to see where I was, just started making stuff up, until I could figure out where I was. It wasn’t a very fun experience for me, but I think it actually freaked the pianist out even more. 😆One of the problems, was that I never learned how to memorize music. And not because my teachers were negligent in any way. We just didn’t really know that much back then about how memory works! But thanks to the efforts of several researchers in the last couple decades, we now know quite a bit about the most - and least - effective ways to get all those notes into and out of our brains.One of those researchers is Jane Ginsborg. And in today’s episode, Jane will share many key tips and details with us on the science of memorization, specifically as it relates to musicians. And because Jane’s background is in voice, there are some special nuances included for singers as well!Get all the nerdy details right here: Jane Ginsborg: On Building Stronger and More Reliable Musical MemoryA memory courseIf you'd like to learn more about the music memorization process and get more comfortable (and confident) performing from memory, you may be interested in the Bulletproof Memory course that will be released soon. You can join the waitlist for the limited public release right here.More from The Bulletproof Musician Get the free weekly newsletter, for more nerdy details and bonus subscriber-only content. Pressure Proof: A free 7-day performance practice crash course that will help you shrink the gap between the practice room and the stage. Learning Lab: A continuing education community where musicians and learners are putting research into practice. Live and self-paced courses